Containers, and especially plastic containers, for storing and/or shipping articles are well known in the art. Typically, the container includes a pair of sidewalls, top and bottom walls, an end wall, and a cover member for opening and closing one end of the container. Such containers typically include the cover member being pivotally connected to a bottom wall of the container, so that the cover member can be pivoted to its open or closed position to easily insert or remove articles from the container. In one specific prior art arrangement, the cover member is provided with side flaps extending therefrom for interconnecting the cover member and respective sidewalls. In this particular prior art arrangement, each of the side flaps includes an arc-shaped edge and a guiding tab extending from the arc-shaped edge of the side flap for engaging and moving relative to an arc-shaped guiding slot formed in the sidewall of the container. In this manner, the cover member may be pivoted to its open or closed position, with the guiding tab and guiding slot cooperating to guide the movement of the cover member and to limit the extent to which it can be pivoted to its open position. Also, the cover member is provided with a locking tab which must be manually tucked into the container to hold the cover member closed.
Although such prior art arrangements are generally satisfactory for the purpose of storing and/or shipping articles, there have been some drawbacks. For example, the cover member and the guiding tabs do not operate to automatically lock the cover member in its open or closed position. Therefore, after the cover member has been pivoted to its closed position, the locking tab must be manually tucked into the container, or it is free to fall by itself back to its open position, especially if articles within the container apply a force to the cover member to pivot it to its open position. In addition, when the cover member is pivoted to its open position, the cover member may by itself start pivoting to its closed position requiring that at least one hand or some other means be employed to hold the cover member in its open position while articles are being removed therefrom or inserted in the container. Therefore, it would be desirable if the cover member could be automatically locked in its open and closed positions.
In addition, such hopper-type plastic containers are normally arranged in a cabinet having a plurality of walls folded into a rectangular configuration to have one open side adapted to receive a plurality of the containers in an aligned and/or stacked arrangement. When it is desired to stack a plurality of cabinets during use and/or shipment, they are merely placed on top of each other so that they are free to move relative to each other. This is undesirable, since the cabinets may move out of alignment with each other.
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved plastic container which overcomes one or more of the aforesaid problems. Specifically, it is within the contemplation of the present invention to provide an improved plastic container, wherein the cover member and sidewalls of the container are provided with cooperating locking features which operate to automatically lock the cover member in an open or closed position relative to the container.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved cabinet for holding a plurality of containers in an aligned arrangement, with each of the cabinets including cooperating attaching features to hold a plurality of adjacent cabinets in a fixed relationship, such as in stacked arrangement.